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Moleskinerie is the official blog of Moleskine® and it is completely dedicated to you. It tells about your passions, youradventures, your experiences. Everythinag that involves your ideas and the way you express them on your notebooks.

How Art Made the World

24/07/2006

"ART MADE THE WORLD explores the essential functions art served in early
civilizations and, in some cases, still serves in modern society. Beyond that,
the series seeks answers to such vexing questions as: What made our ancient
ancestors create art in the first place? What are the forces that subconsciously
guide the artist’s hand? Why, from the very beginning, have we preferred images
of the human body with distorted or exaggerated features?

"The essential premise of the show," says Dr. Nigel Spivey, "is that of all the
defining characteristics of humanity as a species, none is more basic than the
inclination to make art. Great apes will smear paint on canvas if they are given
brushes and shown how, but they do not instinctively produce art any more than
parrots produce conversation. We humans are alone in developing the capacity for
symbolic imagery." In fact, scientists have found growing evidence that our
brains are "hardwired" for art and that the shapes, colors and structures
inherent in art originate deep within our collective psyche. The series uses the
latest research to investigate the biological, social and political forces
behind major artistic movements of the past. Spivey then demonstrates how these
great turning points in art have reverberated through the centuries to define
the visual landscape we now inhabit…"